THE DIXIE DETECTIVE AGENCY
CHAPTER FIVE
Once they were safely out of Skivvy’s, Virginia, Georgia, and Brooke examined the slip of paper were two lines hand printed in block capitals one read “69 S. EXA CT.” and the other “Ralston.”
“Sixty-nine South Exa Court,” Virginia said.
“Ralston is over in Virginia,” Georgia said.
“She means the state, of course.”
“I thought as much,” Brooke said.
Just then, they heard a voice say: “There they are.”
“We can check this stuff out in the morning,” Georgia said. “For now, let’s put as much distance between this place and us.”
“Agreed,” Brooke said.
The three reached their vehicles and went along their separate ways.
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Virginia and Georgia awoke early the next morning, in hope of beating the traffic. True, early morning traffic on the Potomac bridges was more likely to be coming toward Washington than away from it, but the two were leaving nothing to chance. There were on the street a little but after six, when all the bureaucrats were at best just crawling out of bed.
The drive was largely uneventful. They crossed the Potomac at the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and let Arlington and Fairfax counties pass them by and were soon following the signs to and their electronic navigator to Ralston and eventually, South Exa Court.
Exa Court, both North and South, turned out to be a pair of fairly long cul-de-sacs. If a cul-de-sac was a horseshoe, then the house with the number 69 was at the base of the horseshoe.
“It’s a perfect place for them,” Georgia observed. “If they had a lookout posted in an upstairs bedroom, they could have seen us coming as soon as we turned the corner.”
“Let’s head back to that gas station we passed a little ways back,” Virginia suggested.
“Why? We don’t need gas right away.”
“No, not that. Did you ever see a gas station that didn’t sell maps? Let’s get a detailed one of this area.”
Back at the gas station, the two bought a map. “Okay,” Georgia said. “You’re thinking about coming in the back way.”
“Exactly.”
The two drove to a road behind the house in question. It was theoretically possible to come up on the house from behind, but there was no visible fence. They decided to report their findings to Dixie, but it was still too early for them to call the office. Since neither one had actually eaten breakfast, they decided to eat at a nearby pancake house. Virginia had standard buttermilk pancakes with sausage while Georgia went with buckwheat pancakes and bacon.
After the two finished their meal, they phoned the office and told Virginia about what they discovered. “You should have found out who owns the place before you went out there,” Dixie said. “Get back here as soon as you can.”
By now, traffic had tapered off from the morning rush hour, so they were able to return to Washington without too much delay. On their return to the office, a visibly concerned Dixie admonished them for going off without letting her know. “Anyway, I checked out that house you looked at,” she said. “It’s owned by a corporation, one of those without shareholders.”
“A dummy?” Virginia wondered aloud.
“Possibly. And there’s more bad news for you two. The Wine twins were released on bail.”
“For two counts of attempted murder?” Georgia gasped. “Somebody must have forked over a lot of money for that to happen.”
“Unfortunately,” Dixie said, “since the were caught outside the studio and neither one actually poured out the paint thinner, all the got hit with was misdemeanor assault and unlawful restraint.”
“So they could be anywhere by now.”
“We’ll keep an eye out for them,” Virginia promised.
They subject them switched to the owners of the house. “This dummy company has to have at least a have officers, or else they couldn’t get the papers filed,” Virginia said.
Dixie handed Georgia a sheet of paper. “There’s a connection to Skivvy’s” she read. “President Tonya Hyde, CEO Randy Mann, Vice President in Charge of Sales Peter Wang, Vice President in Charge of Finance Zach Schmidt. These could the guys who roughed you up.”
Virginia agreed. “It’s too much of a coincidence to be anything else.”
“I think we should go now,” Georgia said.
“Where too?” Virginia wondered.
“Nowhere in particular. I just want to see if we pick up a tail.”
“I’ll go out and follow the followers,” Dixie offered. “Maybe we can something out of them. I have my headset cell phone.”
“Good. That way we can keep in touch,” Georgia said.
Virginia drove. After about five minutes Georgia noticed they were being followed. “They must have been watching the office,” Virginia said. “It’s they only way they could have picked us up so fast.”
Georgia punched up they number of Dixie’s head set phone. “So soon?” Dixie said. “Where are you heading?”
“Eastbound on Constitution Avenue,” Georgia said.
“Good. Remember that abandoned warehouse over in Anacostia?”
“Sure. We caught those kidnappers in that ransom drop there last fall.”
“Go there. I’ll meet you. From there we’ll see what happens,”
Georgia broke off the connection and explained things to Virginia. “A nice trap for them to walk into,” Virginia said. “But they’ll get suspicious. I don’t think they have anything there.”
“True, but we could be going after a false lead,” Georgia said.
Virginia was confused for a few moments until she realized Georgia was putting herself in their opponents’ minds. Not all false leads were deliberate deceptions on the part of their foes. Some were simply cases of drawing the wrong conclusion.
They crossed the Anacostia River and entered the so named section of town between that river and Maryland. They soon found the warehouse and pulled up to it. The van drove up soon after. Only then did the two realize they were unarmed. They had left their guns back home. Their nest bet would be to rush the van before its occupants.
On reaching the van, they discovered the two occupants were Brandy and Sherry Wine. The twins were yanked from the van just as Dixie showed up. She remembered to carry a gun and ordered Brandy and Sherry to face the van and out their hands on the vehicle. Georgia and Virginia searched the twins’ purses and found each one had two lengths of rope and two thick pieces of cloth.
“Into the van,” Dixie ordered.
Once inside, even longer pieces of rope were found. Virginia went to tie Brandy and Georgia bound Sherry. “Not too tight,” Dixie said. “Just keep them out of trouble a couple hours or so.”
Once the twins’ wrists and ankles were bound, they were gagged as well. “Blindfold them too,” Dixie warned. “That should be enough.”